Boise Guardian » City Governmenthttp://boiseguardian.com
A different slant on the news.Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:32:39 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Uber Ride Share App Parkedhttp://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/26/uber-ride-share-app-parked/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/26/uber-ride-share-app-parked/#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 20:35:04 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11642In an open letter to Team Dave and the Boise City Council, the Uber ride share scheme said Thursday they were parking the program for the “foreseeable future” in Boise.

The letter said in part, “High and growing costs combined with unworkable and onerous regulations being proposed by the City leave Uber no other choice than to suspend operations in Boise for the foreseeable future.” COMPLETE TEXT Also a NATIONAL STORY.

The ride share program has been banned in some cities, allowed in others throughout the world.

Boise wanted to do background checks on drivers and inspect vehicles while also demanding proof of insurance. Uber had answers to some of the concerns, but claimed the outdated Boise regs were “like putting a square peg in a round hole.”

We gotta go with Team Dave on this one. Having a slick tech savvy outfit slip into town, offer free “test rides” for a couple months, but violate the the agreement and charge passengers doesn’t speak well for the Uber plan. The city had threatened to file criminal charges for the alleged violations.

We jokingly called into question whether or not the USAF Secretary actually came to Boise when all legacy media were banned from photographing her or any of her meetings.

The local politicos including Team Dave and all of the Washington delegation stood before the cameras and were liberally quoted in their quest to keep the Idaho Air National Guard mission at Gowen Field. The Department of Defense is considering moving the unit to Mountain Home to consolidate the mission and reduce costs.

Citing the usual “it means jobs and economic stimulus,” the locals lobbied the secretary, but no opposing views were presented and the public was not allowed any voice. It was a well orchestrated event for a very select group. Even Ada County Commishes were left off the guest list.

While a move may have some negative economic impact on Boise, it could also have a positive impact at Mountain Home and not subject Bench residents to the extreme noise of the F-35 fighter in the future. From a military standpoint, it makes sense to fly high performance jets in the desert away from civilian air traffic and not over the most densely populated area of the state.

]]>http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/25/pentagon-releases-boise-photos/feed/11Was Madam Secretary In Stealth Mode?http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/23/was-madam-secretary-in-stealth-mode/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/23/was-madam-secretary-in-stealth-mode/#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 23:19:01 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11620If Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James actually came to Boise last week, she must have been in “stealth mode” or operating from a drone below the local radar.

USAF Sec. Deborah L. James

Checking with the local newsies, the GUARDIAN has yet to find a single reporter who could confirm the Air Force Secretary actually appeared in Boise last week. Three TV stations, a radio station, and the Daily Paper all covered the “visit,” but nobody saw Madam Secretary. Col. Tim Marsano, spokesman for the Idaho National Guard, told the GUARDIAN she spoke to about 1,000 Guard members.

The politicos who are “cheering for the home team,” (to prevent the Air Guard being based in Mountain Home) claim they saw her, but when a TV station sought promised pictures of her from one of the congressional delegation, they were told pictures were not permitted. The Air Force told the senator’s office they couldn’t take pictures??

They all claimed there was “tremendous support” to keep the Air Guard at Gowen Field. Interesting no members of the media or the public were able to see her. Past reports and comments on the GUARDIAN would indicate there is a significant opposition to the future posting of F-35 fighters in Boise. We find it sad her visit was so orchestrated that no media or anyone agreeing with the Air Force proposal to combine the IANG with the active units at Mt. Home AFB were allowed contact with her.

She’s not a bad looking secretary, so we’re surprised she is so camera shy.

]]>http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/23/was-madam-secretary-in-stealth-mode/feed/10ACHD To Consider Opening With Prayerhttp://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/21/achd-to-consider-opening-with-prayer/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/21/achd-to-consider-opening-with-prayer/#commentsSat, 21 Feb 2015 20:00:24 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11612At the Feb. 25 Ada County Highway District meeting, commishes will consider the Boise City “Hockey Puck” parking meter issue and a proposed resolution to offer local “religious leaders” a chance to perform an invocation prayer to open their deliberations.

The hockey pucks are old news–Boise wants to embed devices in the pavement to erase parking meter time if a vehicle leaves a spot.

The news event will be how the five members vote on the prayer proposal. The ACHD legal counsel has offered up an opinion regarding prayer at the open meetings. The short version is the U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that as long as ALL religions are offered a chance at the public pulpit, it’s OK.

The staff came up with three choices:
1–Adopt the proposal
2–Reject the proposal
3–Adopt a policy to provide a moment of silence

The six pages of background and the resolution itself contains a sample invitation which will be offered to all faiths and denominations to pray “according to the dictates of your own conscience.” The invite warns to not use the prayer opportunity to disparage any faith or attempt to convert.

These things can be humorous and amusing. Boise City Councilors open with a prayer and former Councilor Alan Shealy was known for standing, but not closing his eyes or bowing his head during the prayer, much to the disgust of fellow councilor Vern Bisterfeldt.

When asked how HE knew Shealy didn’t close his eyes during the prayer since he (Bisterfeldt) claimed to observe the practice by closing HIS eyes, Bisterfeldt responded, “I caught him on the video!”

Boise’s city fathers and mothers are just a bit too enamored with the current planning mantra of “increased density,” and other “progressive” attitudes that are “outside the box.”
In their rush to be “user-friendly” to developers, create demand for public transit, and jump aboard any band wagon with the promise of “jobs and economic development,” city officials have created some serious issues with approval of massive stick-built four story apartments in the area west of Capitol Blvd near Ann Morrison Park.

A GUARDIAN reader pointed out the “master plan” seeks consideration of a publicly-funded parking structure to solve the anticipated problems caused by the new units–all privately owned. Even Boise State University officials noted during the planning process that parking issues were being created with the construction of so many living units.

They also lost a supreme court case last week which remanded approval of one set of apartments back to the city because officials ignored parking issues when the builder sought an exemption to a three story height rule. He wanted to add 33% more units without increasing the parking.

Rather than demand fire-safe building materials for the multi-story buildings, the planning department has allowed use of wood construction. We raised the issue of fire safety with Boise Fire Chief Dennis Doan. He declined to comment on the specific projects in the Lusk Street area, but offered the following response to our invitation to post a guest opinion.

Chief Doan said, “Buildings incorporating lightweight construction are likely to present a severe hazard to firefighter safety, if a fire involves or compromises the integrity of the lightweight structural elements. The problem isn’t lightweight construction. The problem is what happens when lightweight construction is exposed to fire. The Boise Fire department provides firefighters with extensive training on the hazards of lightweight construction.
Boise Fire department has standard operating procedures for fires in buildings that incorporate lightweight construction. We use extreme caution in situations where lightweight construction is or could be involved in a fire; the possibility of rapid and sudden structural failure must be anticipated.

When a fire occurs in a structure that is known or suspected to incorporate lightweight construction, all firefighters operating at the incident scene are notified of the potential hazard and operations shall be conducted in a manner that recognizes the risk of rapid structural failure. Extreme caution is exercised when firefighters are allowed to operate directly above or below areas that are supported by lightweight construction that is involved in or has been exposed to a fire.

All firefighters are immediately withdrawn from such areas if there are indications that lightweight construction is involved in or exposed to the fire. A defensive strategy is employed in situations where the structural integrity of a building or a portion of a building is in doubt.

Boise Fire department conducts pre-incident planning of new and existing buildings, including multi-family residential buildings, to identify risk factors and facilitate the development of appropriate strategies and tactics. Firefighter safety is always a primary consideration in the pre-incident planning process.”

Even with sprinklers and alarms, it’s difficult to ignore the combustibility of wood. It may be strong, but once it gets burned, wood can’t hold a candle to concrete and steel.

]]>http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/15/growthophobes-beware-of-increased-density/feed/22Civilian Oversight Of Coppers Still Missinghttp://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/14/civilian-oversight-of-coppers-still-missing/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/14/civilian-oversight-of-coppers-still-missing/#commentsSat, 14 Feb 2015 17:02:32 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11600According to a well researched story in the DAILY PAPER by Sven Berg, Team Dave can’t seem to find an ombudsman to scrutinize Boise Police complaints.

A woman from North Carolina had been offered the job, but after a background check, the job offer was rescinded. We have no problem with that, but it has been 19 months. The office of ombudsman–or any other oversight authority should be viewed as an “insurance policy.” You need to have it in place and hope to never use it. Just like the fire department–good to have it, but not good to need.

The GUARDIAN contends the very best plan is to create a board of no more than six citizens to act as a “police commission.” That board would act in similar fashion to the library, zoning, parking, airport, and library boards which are comprised of citizen volunteers. As it is today, we have no voice in the operation of our police and fire departments and they consume nearly half of the entire city budget.

Councilors have argued in the past they act as a police commission. If true, why have citizen boards for the smaller and more easily managed departments? Police and fire need to hear directly from citizens.

“Civilian oversight” is a common practice recognized across the USA. Our suggestion is to have the board consider and approve the police budget proposals which go to city council and generally act as a sounding board for policy decisions and citizen complaints which are not resolved by the police department internal affairs office. An investigator–even a police officer–could be assigned to do the investigations currently assigned to the part-time ombudsman stand in.

The ombudsman concept was created by former Mayor Brent Coles before he resigned in shame and went to jail. A group of citizens had recruited former Councilor Paula Forney to advocate on behalf of a police commission during the dark days of Boise’s police and political history. She attended a national meeting of civilian police oversight proponents in California and was about to suggest something for Boise. Coles’ ombudsman proposal was rushed in and preempted citizen control.

Just like the current situation, several candidates turned down the job and it was offered to a woman who said in a press conference she would “favor law enforcement” if all factors were equal in an investigation…she never got the job.

Pierce Murphy was actually the third choice. He wrote his own ordinance which we love to call “Murphy’s Law,” which isolated the job as much as possible from politics and outside influence. He now holds a similar post within the Seattle Police Department.

]]>http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/14/civilian-oversight-of-coppers-still-missing/feed/20Good News, Bad Newshttp://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/11/good-news-bad-news/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/11/good-news-bad-news/#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 19:00:48 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11592Mostly to allow for some intelligent comments, we offer the following items which transpired in the past day or two.

–HORSELESS RACING appears to be reaching the finish line as legislators and legacy media point out the deceptions used to get a 2013 bill passed which allowed slot machines disguised as “instant racing machines.” The GUARDIAN has declared the machines unconstitutional.

–IDAHO SUPREME COURT sent a simple planning and zoning case back to Boise officials after noting they refused to mandate adequate parking in apartments near Lusk Street across Capitol Blvd. from BSU.

–NINTH FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT pulled the plug on St. Luke’s Hospital merger plan, saying it would limit competition for medical business in Idaho. Legal fees alone will cost a lot of $10 aspirin and tissues.

–ST. LUKE’s PLAN to close Jefferson St. in a quest for free land at expense of Boise motorists was denied by city P&Z.

–UBER CARS “ride sharing app” took a hit from the City Council when councilors refused to allow the wannabe taxi scheme to operate without first making driver background checks available to the city as well as subjecting cars to inspection–just like real taxis.

]]>http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/11/good-news-bad-news/feed/5The Sky Is NOT The Limit For New Housinghttp://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/10/the-sky-is-not-the-limit-for-new-housing/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/10/the-sky-is-not-the-limit-for-new-housing/#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 03:27:14 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11583In its quest to “increase density,” Boise City’s fathers (and mothers) attempted to run rough shod over the city building code when it came to new apartments near BSU on Lusk Street, but the Idaho Supreme Court, once again, ruled against the city action in an opinion released Tuesday.

If you haven’t seen all the wood construction between Capitol Blvd. and Ann Morrison Park, you are missing out on something like 1,700 housing units built in what looks like a lumber yard. The three private projects are all encouraged by BSU and Boise City as “multi-family units.” From a practical standpoint they will provide student housing and not cost the university anything. They will create traffic, pedestrian, and parking problems, not to mention pedestrian and bicycle traffic across the 8 lanes of Capitol Blvd.

Parking is a major issue, as well as pedestrian and bicycle traffic across the 8 lanes of Capitol Blvd. Here is the official summary of the matter from the Idaho Supreme Court.

917 Lusk, LLC v. City of Boise, Docket No. 41214“In an appeal from Ada County arising from a petition for judicial review of the Boise City Council’s decision granting a conditional use permit for Royal Boulevard Associates to build an apartment complex near Boise State University, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the district court affirming the City Council’s approval of the Boise Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision to grant the conditional use permit.

“The Supreme Court held that the Commission and the district court failed to recognize that Idaho law and the Boise City Code provided the Commission with discretion to require the project to provide on-site automobile parking beyond the minimum required by the Parking Chapter.

As a result of this failure to apply governing legal standards, the Commission refused to consider the adverse effects on property in the vicinity, and thus, the decision reflected an abuse of discretion. Additionally, the Supreme Court found substantial evidence supporting Lusk’s claim of potential prejudice to its substantial rights as the project calls for 622 bedrooms to be leased to students and the Parking Chapter requires only 280 parking spaces for the project.”

The opinion indicated the city and P&Z Commission had the authority to mandate additional parking when granting a conditional use permit which allowed taller than legal structures. However both the council and P&Z commishes declined to consider extra parking as a condition of use.

JERSEY FIRE SPREAD RAPIDLY IN SIMILARLY CONSTRUCTED COMPLEX

Most building codes require concrete and steel construction of buildings taller than three stories. Boise has been approving wood construction for taller structures at the behest of developers and contractors. A devastating fire ripped through a very similar apartment development in New Jersey January 22. Building codes and variances nationwide have been questioned in the wake of that fire.
]]>http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/10/the-sky-is-not-the-limit-for-new-housing/feed/12No Logic When It Comes To Gunshttp://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/08/no-logic-when-it-comes-to-guns/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/08/no-logic-when-it-comes-to-guns/#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 03:28:28 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11576The annual “silly season” is upon us when it comes to gun laws.

A bill currently before the Idaho legislature would make it legal for all citizens to carry concealed guns. Currently only folks with a permit and elected officials can carry concealed without a permit.
When it comes to guns, Idaho laws and public policies make no sense and have little logic or consistency.

After Guv Butch signed the “enhanced carry law” last year, allowing gun toters with a special permit to carry concealed weapons on college campuses, the institutions of higher learning claimed it cost them $3.7 million for additional security. Huh?

At least at BSU they upped their security checks, installing magnetometers at the entrance to whatever they call Bronco Stadium these days. Do they now catch people with enhanced permits? What prompted the security searches at football games, but left the entrances to the basketball arena (currently called Taco Bell) unguarded? We would sure like to know if football fans are more prone to packing heat than basketball fans.

If the legislature rescinded the enhanced carry law and banned ALL concealed weapons on campus, would BSU and the other schools reduce their security staffs and do away with the intrusive searches? We find it absurd to blame the legislature for the $3.7 million “extra security” expense.

The public search process at the Ada Courthouse is just as difficult to understand. Employees use a side entrance and are not subjected to the same personal intrusion as couples seeking marriage licenses or lawyers attending hearings. All those elected judges, commishes, the treasurer, clerk, and assessor can pack heat. They also park in the basement and can bring in their friends and relatives without being searched. “Lock the front door, but leave the back open for the kids.”

Boise City Hall and the Idaho Capitol have no such search requirements for admission.

It isn’t much more logical at the airport where TSA will SELL you some sort of pre-check pass that allows you to keep your belt cinched up and not risk athletes foot padding around shoeless in the footprints of god-only-knows who walked before you. You can also be “randomly selected” for the same TSA courtesy bypass of the body scanner and strip line.

Here is the final irony. If you want a gun for “protection,” think about a bullet proof vest instead. Chances are it will be easier to obtain a gun than a vest.

]]>http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/08/no-logic-when-it-comes-to-guns/feed/112/3 of Boise Council Appointed Before Electionhttp://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/04/23-of-boise-council-appointed-prior-to-election/
http://boiseguardian.com/2015/02/04/23-of-boise-council-appointed-prior-to-election/#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 18:32:01 +0000http://boiseguardian.com/?p=11573With Team Dave’s latest appointment to the Boise City Council, all but two members were appointed prior to running as an INCUMBENT.

Scot Ludwig, local developer and lawyer, is Mayor Dave Bieter’s latest appointment to the council. Ludwig was among 32 residents who sought the appointment without election.

Ludwig fills the seat vacated when former councilor Dave Eberle packed his bags and moved to Garden City.

Of the current council, only TJ Thomson and Elaine Clegg ran for the office without being first appointed to fill a vacancy. All of the councilors have since been reelected.

We find it somewhat troubling that 32 people will seek appointment, but when it comes to actually running against an incumbent, it is difficult to find viable candidates.